DOW JONES futures were up 0.43% to 34,276 points, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.43% to 4,194 points. NASDAQ 100 futures were up 0.61% to 13,267 points.
The moves come after the major indexes rose yesterday to start a week of business results: The Dow Jones index rose 100.71 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 gained 0.33%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.28%.
Traders will continue to monitor earnings releases for signs of how companies are holding up in a period of persistent inflation and rising interest rates, although earnings so far appear consistent. With 33 S&P 500 companies reporting their financial statements to date, the average earnings per share decline is -7.5% versus -8.2% expected (prior to the first company’s release). The qualitative balance is as follows: 87.9% exceed expectations and 12.1% disappoint. In the previous quarter (Q4 2022), earnings per share fell -2.4% versus -3.3% expected.
“Since the beginning of last year, there has been a lot of pessimism about the economic and financial outlook,” Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research told CNBC. “I said I think we’re in a recession. We’ve been in a recession since last year. But it is a progressive recession that is affecting various sectors and does not indicate a recession for the economy as a whole,” adds the expert.
The corporate earnings season continues today with Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Netflix will also be parading through the results runway, but to know the numbers we’ll have to wait until the market closes.
One of the early risers was Johnson&Johnson, the has raised its earnings guidance for 2023 and is betting on its new cancer treatments and multiple myeloma drug Darzalex to soften the blow from declining sales of some of its older drugs.
The healthcare conglomerate now expects to earn between $10.60 and $10.70 per share on an adjusted basis through 2023, down from its previous guidance of $10.45 to $10.65. Analysts had expected earnings of $10.51 per share.
The drugmaker posted higher-than-expected earnings of $2.68 per share in the first quarter, supported by strong sales across all of its businesses, including medical devices and consumer health. On average, analysts had forecast earnings of $2.50 per share.
Bank of America shares are up 3% before the bell after the banking giant beat market expectations on both the top and bottom lines of its earnings report. The bank posted earnings of 94 cents a share on revenue of $26.39 billion in the first quarter.. Analysts had expected earnings of 82 cents a share on revenue of $25.13 billion.
Rate hikes were a major contributor to those gains, with net interest income rising 25% to $14.4 billion, Bank of America detailed.
It also released its JB Hunt Transport Services financial statements, which fell more than 2% after the transport and logistics company failed to meet first-quarter earnings expectations on lower demand, lower prices and higher costs. JB Hunt posted earnings of $1.89 per share on sales of $3.23 billion. Analysts had forecast earnings of $2.00 per share on sales of $3.4 billion.
Meanwhile, in the technology sector, the focus remains on Alphabet The New York Times reported on Sunday that Samsung is considering switching its default search engine to Bing. It’s just a rumor at the moment as Google is currently negotiating a contract extension with Samsung.
Investors will also need to pay attention to Moderna’s stock today, which fell 8.4% yesterday amid doubts about a fast-track approval of a candidate skin cancer vaccine.
On the macro front, operators need to be aware today the latest data on housing construction and building permits. Residential construction is expected to fall 3.4% to 1.40 million units in March, according to Dow Jones Consensus estimates. Building permits would have fallen 4.9% to 1.45 million units.
For fixed income securities The two-year Treasury yield slipped below 4.2% after rising on Monday after Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said he wanted to see more evidence inflation was slowing towards the 2% target. The two-year bond yield is 3.5966%, while the 30-year bond yield jumps to 3.8152%.
According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, more than 84% of traders expect a 25 basis point rate hike during the next Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.
In commodities markets, China’s GDP figure is not enough to boost oil prices, which are falling again after falling 2% yesterday. West Texas barrels fell 0.21% to $80.55, while benchmark Brent oil futures in Europe fell 0.17% to $84.50 a barrel.
The dollar weakens against its Group 10 counterparts and begins a two-day rally. In this way, the euro increases by 0.43% against the greenback to an exchange rate of 1.0976 dollars for each common currency.